They see me as an affirmative action case. —African American student at UCLA1
The Diversity Dodge
“A farm boy from Idaho can bring something to Harvard College that a Bostonian cannot offer. Similarly, a black student can usually bring something that a white person cannot offer.” With these words, Harvard University officials effectively charmed Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, who provided the key swing vote in the 1979 Bakke decision upholding the use of race as a “plus-factor” to further educational diversity in university admissions. Ever since Bakke, “diversity” has become the watchword of the defenders of racial preference policies both in college admissions and in many other areas of American life.
Diversity is said to bring about a host of educational benefits. A more diverse student body, Sandra Day O’Connor declared in the more recent Grutterdecision
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